title: Electrostatic-spray ionization mass spectrometry sniffing for perfume fingerprinting.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The perfume market is growing significantly, and it is easy to find imitative fragrances of probably all types of perfume. Such imitative fragrances are usually of lower quality than the authentic ones, creating a possible threat for perfume companies. Therefore, it is important to develop efficient chemical analysis techniques to screen rapidly perfume samples.
  
  
  METHODS
  Electrostatic-spray ionization (ESTASI) was used to analyze directly samples sprayed or deposited on different types of paper. A linear ion trap mass spectrometer was used to detect the ions produced by ESTASI with a modified extended transfer capillary for 'sniffing' ions from the paper.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Several commercial perfumes and a model perfume were analyzed by ESTASI-sniffing. The results obtained by paper ESTASI-MS of commercial fragrances were compared with those obtained from ESI-MS. In addition, a commercial fragrance was first nebulized on the hand and then soaked up by blotting paper, which was afterwards placed on an insulating plate for ESTASI-MS analysis. Analysis of peptides and proteins was also performed to show that the paper ESTASI-MS could be used for samples with very different molecular masses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Paper ESTASI-MS yields a rapid fingerprinting characterization of perfume fragrances, avoiding time-consuming sample-preparation steps, and thereby performing a rapid screening in a few seconds.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Electrochimie Physique et Analytique, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Station 6, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tobolkina
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.forename: Guobin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Hubert H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Girault
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D010209:Paper; D010476:Perfume / Q000737:chemistry*; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D010476:Perfume